New Chief of Staff in EUFOR

Brig.-Gen. Mihócza has been serving as Chief of Staff in the peacekeeping mission comprising 16 nations since 30 April 2015. In his speech, Commander EUFOR Maj.-Gen. Friedrich Schrötter praised the results achieved during Brig.-Gen. Mihócza’s service with the mission.

At the handover-takeover ceremony of the position held in Sarajevo, Maj.-Gen. János Huszár, Acting Commander, HDF Joint Force Command presented the outgoing chief of staff with a medal in recognition of his one-year service with the foreign mission.

Answering our question, Brig.-Gen. Zoltán Mihócza told us that last year one of the main tasks had been to ensure that the headquarters retains its earlier acquired operations planning and command capability. “We have conducted exercises during which we proved that this staff is able to plan and carry out a military operation", he added.

Brig.-Gen. Albert Sáfár, the new chief of staff of the EUFOR Althea mission pointed out that he inherited from his predecessor a “tight-knit, highly trained staff that is able to work by high standards". He emphasized that the primary task remains to maintain cohesion in the staff whose personnel are rotated periodically, because, as he noted, this is the basis of success.

Although the role of the European Union’s mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina has changed by now, there is a continuing need for the presence of troops in the country on the Western Balkans. Over the last two decades, the number of peacekeepers serving with EUFOR Althea has been reduced from the earlier 60,000 to 600, and the current strength of the mission includes 180 Hungarian soldiers.

During his program in Sarajevo, Maj.-Gen. János Huszár visited the NATO HQ Sarajevo (NHQSa), where Hungarian soldiers are also posted. On behalf of NHQSa Commander Brig.-Gen. Giselle Wilz, NHQSa Chief of Staff and Support Chief Col. Gyula Kovács received the acting commander of the HDF Joint Force Command.

Photo: Veronika Dévényi